The present invention relates to single line, plug-in telephone answering machines, more particularly single line, plug-in answering machines having recording means with multiple outgoing message capability and multiple incoming message recording devices or locations.
There are several types of single line, plug-in answering machines currently available in the marketplace. The machines typically have two tape drives: one for the outgoing message (OGM), and the other for recording incoming messages from callers (ICM). In each of these machines, the user records his own OGM on one tape, which is typically a continuous loop tape. Then, when the telephone to which the machine is connected is not answered, the OGM tape is activated playing the tape to the caller. At the end of the OGM, a beep is sounded to alert the caller to the starting of the second tape, the ICM tape, to permit the caller to leave a message.
Each subsequent caller also hears the OGM and is permitted to leave a message which is recorded serially after all of the previously left messages. The machine then places an end of message marker after the message, turns off the ICM tape after each caller's recorded message and resets the OGM tape to the beginning for the next caller.
These machines also permit the user to rewind the ICM tape and to play back the messages. Many of the machines also have standard tape recorder functions such as fast-forward, erase, cue to next message, volume control, etc.
There are also multi-line telephone answering systems which are computer controlled. These systems are capable of receiving calls on numerous lines, some systems with a different recorded out-going message for each line. Additionally, the system can provide a number of secondary out-going messages that can be addressed by informing the caller of the code number to enter from the caller's keypad on their touch-tone phone in the initial out-going message. A form of this system is used by banks and credit unions to permit customers to determine their balances and obtain other information about the serives offered by the institution. For example, an account holder can call the bank, then in response to the initial out-going message enter a code to access the checking account balance sub-routine, enter his account and personal identification numbers, and hear a voice synthesizer tell him his account balance. In these systems the voice recording and transmission are all done digitally and the computer that is controlling the system processes the information in parallel so that the time necessary to deal with the system by any one caller seems to the caller to be as if he is the only caller using the system. These systems are very complex, memory intensive, and require sophisticated software to perform the desired functions. As such, these systems are also very expensive.
It would be desirable to have a single line, plug-in telephone answering machine that could provide different OGM messages for different callers in response to the caller entering a code sequence from a touch-tone telephone without the need of a sophisticated software system. The code sequence could be selected from internally available codes by, or a code entered by, the user. Additionally, it would be useful to have the capability of having the caller, again from the touch-tone panel of his telephone, to enter a code sequence to select the party for whom the message that he wishes to leave is for. The entry of that code would then activate the ICM tape associated with that code. The present invention provides such a single line, plug-in answering machine.